Inmates of Mountain Prison v. Canada
T-582-98
Hargrave P.
30/4/98
6 pp.
Motion to strike out action under R. 221 as containing no cause of action, scandalous, frivolous, vexatious-Statement of claim composed of bare assertions, without particulars or specific facts, dealing with broad spectrum of complaints, including arbitrary enforcement of prison rules; irrelevant prison programs, cruel and unusual punishment; ineffective grievance procedure, obstruction of justice when prisoners wish to lay criminal charges; Charter breaches; invalid entries in prison files; staff who are ignorant of duties and of prison regulations, guidelines-Types of relief requested: Corrections Canada be held responsible for failing to hold prison administrators, of every prison in Canada, accountable; punitive, exemplary damages-Statement of claim, relief sought so broad, general that might have been drafted by committee after consulting with individuals each with own perspectives, requirements-Court will only strike pleadings in obvious cases where beyond reasonable doubt plaintiff will not succeed where issue disclosure of reasonable cause of action: Canada v. Inuit Tapirisat of Canada, [1980] 2 S.C.R. 735-Taking facts as proven, some groups of inmates or individuals may have causes of action-Court refusing to strike out statement of claim for want of cause of action-But statement of claim so general, bereft of specifics, including names, dates as to prevent defendant from making either proper investigation or response-Reviewing similar statement of claim in Murray v. Public Service Commission (1978), 21 N.R. 230, F.C.A. noting such statements of claim fundamentally vexatious as revealed insufficient facts to show basis for claim, thus making it impossible for defendant to answer claim or for court to regulate proceedings-Such vexatious proceeding not leading to any practical result-Also, statement of claim containing so many different allegations, without any specifics, and so many different types of relief, many of which difficult to connect to statement of claim, nearly impossible for Court to regulate trial of matter, transmute allegations into remedies-Amounting to abuse of system-Statement of claim struck out-Statement of claim so lengthy, broad, general that amendment not helpful-Statement of claim also struck out because plaintiff not association, but group of inmates initially represented by two persons signing statement of claim, and subsequently by some 75 inmates-Federal Court Rules, R. 2 defining "plaintiff" as including person on whose behalf action commenced-"Person" defined as including unincorporated association and partnership-"Inmates of Mountain Prison" not entity which might as group, without further elaboration, sue or be sued-Proceeding could not, by amendment, be converted to class action with one or more named plaintiffs representing inmates of Mountain Prison given diverse, broad spectrum of allegations, claims, remedies sought-Federal Court Rules, 1998, SOR/98-106, RR. 2 "person", "plaintiff", 221.